Not for the first
time, I am planting a few footsteps of my own where those of angels are generally
absent. Criminal charges against Peter
Whittall, former CEO of the Pike River Mine, have been withdrawn. The judge and counsel have informed us that
the charges were unlikely to succeed, even after a lengthy and expensive
trial. We are now being told of shock and outrage.
Peter Whittall, who does
seem a decent and caring man, asked that a fund that had been set aside for his
defence should now be shared out among the Pike River bereaved families, about
$110,000 each. Some of them immediately labeled
this blood money and said they would refuse it.
They are determined to see Peter Whittall convicted and punished, or if
not, someone else “held to account” – only then will they experience something
called closure. One woman told the media
that their men had not died, they had been killed. They are actually prepared to see this man
sent to prison so that they can feel better.
But now it appears, a
curious fellow named Graham McCready, a former accountant, has “vowed” (in the
NZ media you have to vow things these days) he will file 29 charges against
Whittall. This character has already
has some success in private prosecutions of people he disapproves of. Does Magna Carta perhaps need amendment? McCready seems to carry public-spiritedness
to ebullient proportions.
Whittall has endured
some two years of this sort of stuff already.
Of course the miners’ families would respond that they have been
suffering too. But now our Prime
Minister has said “it’s not a good look” that the payment has been offered to
the families – the PM is of course acutely aware of the look rather than the
truth and realities, and he is the first, or at any rate the latest, to trot
out the timeless cliché that it won’t bring their loved ones back.
In my view all that is
playing politics. I would have thought the
time has come when someone in authority, someone with mana, has to say firmly
and publicly: It’s over, folks. You have to draw a line now. It was a tragedy. It was by no means the first mining tragedy
in what is always a dangerous industry, and it was by no means the worst. The bodies can’t be recovered without serious
even unacceptable risk. Their men will
therefore have to lie where they are and be honoured in situ, as has been the case so often before in such disasters, in
wartime, in death at sea, in many places and at many times, not forgetting
deaths on Everest and such places. Any
evidence inside the mine will simply have to remain there mute.
As for blame… Yes, it does matter that people understand
how it happened and why, and how things can be improved. Yes, it matters that willful negligence or incompetence
should be recognized and dealt with. Peter
Whittall however clearly cared about his men.
He evidently himself worked under a seriously defective governance regime. It is intolerable that he should now be led
around any more like some sacrificial scapegoat, submitted to yet more public
vilification, let alone sent to prison.
It’s moving on time,
folks. The world has moved on. Yes, you were deeply hurt and bereaved, but
nothing stays still while you find some means to feel better. Believe me, gaoling Peter Whittall will not
assuage your grief or loss. Start
refusing the role of victims. Make a few
new decisions. Stop the victim-meetings
and all the name, blame and shame. It’s
a blind alley, believe me.
And don’t tell me that
I don’t understand the mining or Westland culture. Of course I don’t, never having been part of
it. But I do understand something of
grief and loss, tragedy and disaster.
Eventually you pick yourself up, check what’s left that is of worth, and
you move on, fragile and wounded as most of us are one way or another anyway. If you don’t, you’re in considerable trouble
down the line.
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